The Österreich Regional stations were launched on 1 October 1967 as part of a major reorganisation of the ORF's radio offerings, which also saw the formation of Ö1 and Hitradio Ö3.
This was precipitated by a national referendum held in 1964 whereby more than 800,000 citizens declared themselves to be against ideological appointments of key positions within the Austrian public broadcasting service under the Proporz system.
Some of the stations, however, such as Radio Oberösterreich, do also broadcast a certain number of classical music programmes as well as cultural and feature items similar to those aired on the nationwide Ö1 channel.
Until the 1990s, many Ö2 programmes were dominated by popular folk music (Volkstümliche Musik), leading to the network often being derogatorily referred to as "housewives' radio".
Music programming is chosen through based on many criteria and is mostly made up of oldies, classic hits and even traditional Volksmusik.